Fret Dressing

Collecting guitars is a trap many players fall into.  There's always thoughts of a "next guitar".  I'm likely no different.  The youngest of my first two sons (Steven Cimijotti) and I both agreed for years that the Fender Stratocaster sunburst finish was our favorite guitar style.  Neither of us did anything about it at the time, but I never changed my mind.

Fairly recently I came across one at a great price and decided it was my next guitar.  The neck was solid and straight.  The action was low and fast.  The finish was beautiful.  The one not so perfect element was the frets.  They were rounded nicely, but the cutoff ends were not finished well for a number of frets.  It was accounted for in the price and so I bought it, knowing one day I'd fix them.  That one day turned into many until our recent run of snowed in days.  It was time.

Let me say right off the start - I am not a luthier.  I have adjusted truss rods, replaced nuts and experimented with many different strings in making several guitars I've owned more playable.  However, I've never dressed frets before.  Never needed to actually.  So if you're using this as a guide, proceed at your own risk, but it did work for me.

There are lot of sites and videos that will show fret detail and dressing techniques for various repairs.  The problems I needed to correct were sharp edges on the bottom of multiple crowns where they'd been cutoff.  Also three frets where the tang was not flush with the neck.  Here are the steps I took to correct them.

Preparation

• Assemble the following:  micro file set,  painter's tape, wire cutters, polyurethane (optional).

Setup

• Relax and cutoff both E strings.  To keep tension on the neck during the work, I left the middle four intact, just removing what was needed for filing.
• Tape down each side of the neck, just below the frets.  Using blue painters tape insures that it will come off easily and be easy to see if hit with the file.
• Tape down in parallel to the frets, as close as possible without touching.

Dressing

• Pick a flat file that seems suitable, maybe one with a taper.  Starting roughly parallel to the fret, draw the file around the end of the fret and down.
• Start near the bottom, around 12th where still have some room, develop technique in a lesser played area.
• Use the flat side of a tapered file.  One direction, rolling motion, starting parallel to fret, rounding over end and down (end of stroke illustrated)

A couple of tips to keep in mind along the way:

• If you're tempted to not use tape - don't.  The tape, especially the blue tape which turns white when roughed up, provides a visual of when getting too deep.  Plus a thin margin of error for slips.
• Place the tape across the frets like laying out string for a setting a fence - as close as possible without touching.
• Near the body frets are narrower than the tape so you can't pre-tape the whole neck to do the job factory style.  There will be iterations of tape removal and resetting.  This is more craft anyway, take your time.
• Since the strat is a double cutaway, I was able to dress 16 on one side and 19 on the other side.  I never play further down the neck anyway, so risking the paint shop finish on the body (the main reason I bought the guitar) wasn't worth it
• Filing took about two hours, a slow and meticulous process, running my hand along entire neck many times as comparision for each one as it was being worked.

Completion

Overall, this was a great success and I'm glad that I did it.  The neck feels much better now when playing.  There are one or two spots where I should have stopped which resulting in a couple micro fine and very short grooves next to a fret.  They weren't enough to require any refinishing, therefore the polyurethane was listed as optional above, more as a warning.

The neck more than passes the 6x6 rule (visible at 6 inches, but not from six feet) which is good enough for me.  However, if you're really particular and/or have a very expensive guitar, finding a professional luthier to do the work for you might be less stressful.

The picture below (that I couldn't get the lighting just right on) provides some idea of what the finished product looks like, restrung and back hanging on the wall. 

For me, this project was probably as much about customizing the guitar as it was just trying something different to see if I could do it.  Looking back, I'd do it again without hesitation.

Now to take it back off the wall and enjoy.

A Sense of Accomplishment

This post might have been better if published before Christmas, but then some family members might have had their surprise spoiled. If you continue reading, you'll have to bear with the Christmas retrospective. You've been warned.

There seems to be a progression in gift giving that goes on through childhood. Initially very young children are included by default in family gift giving. Then they start to give gifts, usually priceless artwork that they've created themselves. At some later point "store bought" gifts creep in, eventually eclipsing all personal creations, even including greeting cards. A rather accelerated timeline, but essentially accurate for many families.

For individuals that have a particular skill that they develop and practice, acquired either through or after childhood, personally created gifts can take on a whole new meaning. Such is the case with our youngest son this Christmas. We've done a number of wood working projects in the last few years. We started out small, with projects of limited size and scope - and the tools they required. Some have required no more than a saw and a drill, others quite a few more. Some were rough carpentry and others finished table pieces. Needless to say, as with any new experience, some mistakes were made - even necessary for learning opportunities.

Sizing of the project, particulary the duration required for completion has also an important element of our journey. One that was created from raw lumber turned out to be too large in scope and the interest was lost. One purchased partially assembled (!) as a mostly stain and finish project that turned out to be not enough action and interest was lost. So this Christmas was a restart of sorts for a start to finish project.

Going down the list family members that, it was decided that a lap desk was the perfect gift for several. We have several around the house (all purchased), with one in particular that everyone chooses first. It was selected as the model for our project. As simple as it was, it was the perfect scope to get in a little of everything in a wood working project. Pilot measurements, cut patterns, wood selection, saw selection, sanding methods, stain preferences, finishing treatments - we got in a little of each. Manual tools, power tools, rags, brushes were all used and understood for their proper purpose. Differences in grain and hardness of various woods such as ash, pine, alder and red oak were learned (we choose the latter). Design and budget choices were even considered when a fancier, slightly more expensive molding was selected for the book rest. There probably isn't anything we didn't touch at some level.

Interest was held throughout the project, four or five separate work sessions I believe. Each stage had new challenges, opportunities and visible progress. And a growing sense of accomplishment. Here's one of the light stained final products with the young woodworker and the recipient. That was another selection point, who got natural oak and who got the Provincial stain. In the end, as you can see, everyone was happy with the result.



So don't infer any deep statements here about commercialism of Christmas or the value of gifts from this post, neither are intended. This is a simple reflection on the observed pride of accomplishment achieved by creation. And a little fatherly bragging. I'm proud of our son for what he accomplished and to have been a part of helping him achieve it.

We're looking forward to many more projects together!

It Just Didn't Seem Right

One of the projects that I'd planned over doing over the long President's Day weekend was repairing my Airdyne. The offset pin holding one of the pedal arms sheared a couple of weeks ago and needed to be replaced. After locating a parts supplier, I thought it would be a relatively straight forward repair after extracting the sheared pin.

However, once the nut was off on the pedal arm, the assembly below - inside the pedal arm - was revealed.








As an added distraction, the part shows an offset between entry and exit to to the arm.





Soooo.....the question is - how do you remove a threaded on one end, smooth on the other, offset "bolt"?

The answer is you realize it isn't a bolt, but rather a wedge pin. Its way too tight to be pulled out by the non threaded end or simply tapped out from the other. The only solution is to put the nut partially back on to increase the surface area while protecting the threads - and give it a good hearty blow with a hammer. Once removed, it looks like this:




Like everything, its easy once you know how to do it. However, getting there took more than a little thinking, experimentation and in the end web searching that found an exploded parts diagram.




Until then though, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Hitting a threaded part with a hammer just didn't seem right.